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Pictures:Tommy Ga-Ken Wan The Great Gatsby Derby Theatre ***** Hitherto The Great Gatsby has been
defined by the original F Scott Fitzgerald novel itself and the 2013 Baz
Luhrmann film. For this production, which debuted earlier in the year at
the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Elizabeth Newman has adapted the
original story for stage, Sarah Brigham directs. Director Brigham wrestles with a story which
shows how wonderful being rich is, but interspersed with some sad and
bad moments. Shonaugh Murray recreates Jazz Age music show tunes without
the awkward bit of attempting to write lyrics to match Fitzgerald’s
original prose. The Jazz Age, with its gangsters and bootleggers , as
presented here by Brigham , lacks the sinister edge of Weimar Berlin,
whilst eschewing the glossy froth of Luhrmann, its strength comes from
the quality of the lead performances The story is set in 1922, the year that began
with the publication of Ulysses and ended with The Waste Land. Its
brevity and acuity is legendary, sensibly, those attributes are to be
seen in this new script which is tight with no superfluous flab. The
evening starts at 7.30pm ands is finished by 10pm Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was first
published exactly 100 years ago. Never at any point during the 1925
book’s near century in copyright did Fitzgerald or his Estate allow a
musical adaptation. However the copyright expired in America two years
ago and now there are two US musical adaptations: Florence Welch’s
Gatsby and one directed by Marc Bruni, and this.
The film is a blueprint for the portrayal of
glamour, excess and Jazz Age opulence. Jen McGinley’s imposing set
succeeds in shrinking that grand vision on to the Derby stage without
losing any of the vibrancy of the period. The stage is split featuring
two grand staircases with a connecting balcony from which the music is
played. Oraine Johnson swaggers and strolls as Jay
Gatsby, dancing with style, panache and confidence, suspended between
chasing the future and longing for the past: the present means nothing
to him. His downfall movingly unfolds. Fiona Wood and April Nerissa Hudson excel with
their vocals. Wood is excellent as the long suffering upwardly mobile
wife to lothario husband Tom (Tyler Collins). David Rankine as writer
and narrator Nick is the vehicle through which events unfold, he does a
seamless job drawing events together. Although the rags to riches story is the nub of
proceedings, contemporaneously we have the Epstein story omnipresent as
a cautionary tale of entitled bacchanalian excess and the trial of Sean
Diddy Combs’ decadence as an unspoken backdrop. Wisely, Newman’s adaptation does not attempt to
redraft Fitzgerald’s masterpiece as a musical rather than novel, nor
does she seek to explore the dark underbelly of the source of all this
wealth . Instead she offers a glittering musical romance underpinned by
the Tragedy of careless people. The finale elevates the production onto another
level bringing together the holy trinity of Newman’s fluid words,
Brigham’s sharp direction, and David Rankine’s outstanding performance
as Nick. His closing soliloquies bring the pathos of Shakespearean
Tragedy at its best into the auditorium. A hugely enjoyable evening. Runs until October
25th Gary Longden 07-10-25 |
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